LITTLE ROCK -- The claim that Little Rock can bar specially licensed gun owners from taking their weapons into City Hall the same way private-property owners can restrict access to their properties is completely wrong, the lawyer for a Conway man with such a gun license states in new court filings.
Chris Corbett, an attorney, is suing the city, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. and City Manager Bruce Moore because he was prohibited from carrying his gun into City Hall. A new law had just gone into effect that was intended to allow enhanced concealed-carry licensees like Corbett to take weapons into spaces where they had formerly been forbidden, like City Hall, airports, the state Capitol grounds and building, General Assembly meetings, state offices and public universities.
Arkansas has two levels of concealed-carry license, basic and enhanced, based on training and live-fire testing.
Corbett's attorney, Robert Steinbuch, a University of Arkansas at Little Rock law professor, petitioned Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chip Welch on Thursday to issue a writ of mandamus to force Little Rock to follow the provisions of Act 1024 and allow qualified concealed-license holders to carry weapons into those places.
"The City's actions demonstrate that it believes that it is above the law and exempt from the mandates of the state," Steinbuch wrote in his 10-page petition. Any rights the city can claim are provided by the lawmakers at the state Legislature, Steinbuch stated.
Municipalities "exist as a creature of state statute and have no independent rights ... Thus, the City's claim that it has a property right or any other right is false," the petition states. "The legal principle disposing of the City's position is simple: government can always grant people rights on government property (state or local) not granted on private property."
The city's response to the writ petition is due next week. City Attorney Tom Carpenter has said he is preparing a more detailed response to the lawsuit.